Horsehead Holding: An Unusual Zinc Play With 40% Upside

Horsehead produces zinc by recycling dust from electric-arc furnaces. A new plant could be a game-changer for the company's earnings and its shares.

Among companies listed on the U.S. exchanges, it would be hard to find too many with a more unusual name than Horsehead Holding.

As the largest zinc producer in North America, Horsehead runs a business that is no less peculiar. Unlike other zinc companies, it doesn't actually mine zinc. It produces the mineral by recycling electric-arc furnace, or EAF, dust, a waste product of steel making. Horsehead makes money two ways: It charges...